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Tuesday, 31 March 2009

When George Orwell wrote “Animal Farm”, he set the pigs as the ‘politicians’, and never has the aptness of that analogy been more amply demonstrated, than this week, with the unedifying spectacle of our UK politicians, being exposed with their snouts firmly in the public funded trough.

This came to light, following a sequence of events that illuminate the self-interest and hypocrisy, at the very heart of the self proclaimed “Mother of Parliaments”.

This attempt was finally defeated, but only after they had spent over £200,000 of tax payers money on a high court action to defend their privileges against tax payer scrutiny.

Then came the revelations, that various MP’s had been playing incredibly fast and loose with the MP expenses system (if not actually breaking the letter of the law).

The Second home allowance for example, was introduced to allow ‘poor MP’s’ from places outside commuting distance like Glasgow (i.e. Labour Party), to purchase a modest flat in London to stay whilst they were working. It was never intended that London MP’s would use it, nor that every MP would generally abuse it as a fundraiser, but ‘lo and behold', that’s what happened.

Examples of the total scam, and free for all that this has become, have appeared in a regular drip, drip, drip, of greed stories.

The Home secretary Jacqui Smith (and her Husband), have been caught a couple of times.

Firstly, she claims that her ‘main home’ is in fact her sisters back bedroom – this so she could claim her ‘family home’ as a second home, and get the mortgage paid by the taxpayer (and not out of her salary).

Secondly, she has furnished this “Second home” i.e. her ‘family home’, not her Sisters bedroom, at tax payers expense, including a ‘reclaimed (Not ‘Antique’ - Its important to note this as ‘Antiques’ are banned), Habitat, stone model sink - £550 and Bath plug (88pence) for it.

Thirdly, she has been found to have been submitting expenses that included on demand ‘Adult Movies’, that her husband watched. He has since apologised for any embarrassment he has caused his wife. Oddly no one seems surprised, or disgusted, that her husband is also employed at the taxpayer’s expense, as her “Assistant”, at the princely sum of £40,000 p.a. ($60,000), which seems to this blog to be just another form of skimming the public purse.

Then came another Government Minister (McNulty), a London MP, who was actually claiming that his parents home, in his own constituency, was his main home, so that he could also claim taxpayers money, to pay for his ‘family’ home just eight miles away.

And just in case it looks like only the Labour party are involved in this ‘jamboree’, well the Winterton’s, a husband and wife set of MP’s, were caught claiming the second home allowance, on a house that they have finished paying the mortgage on, and transferred to a trust.

Another MP, John Conway, has been forced to pay money back for ‘employing’ his son as and assistant, who actually did not work.

The most shocking thing is that each MP caught with their noses in it, is complaining about it “Being within the rules” when caught, and the fact that it’s the press digging, not the MP’s owning up, that is exposing the scandals to public gaze.

Finally to cap it all, they have just awarded themselves a 2.33% pay rise, and this when figures released, show that MPs claimed an average of almost £145,000 each in taxpayer-funded allowances last year, a rise of more than £8000.

Late Edition: Geoff Hoon the transport (but ex defence) secretary, has shown that the lesson is not being learnt, with news just out that he claimed second home allowances for his Derby home while letting out his London home. Whilst at the same time, he was living in a taxpayer-funded Whitehall flat (known as "grace-and-favour residences"), which came with his then job of defence secretary.

Monday, 30 March 2009

As we noted before, South Africa has long ceased being the "Rainbow Nation" and now looks increasingly like just another corrupt African nation.

This view was reinforced, when the South African government refused a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

How any 'democratic nation' could allow Chinese pressure, stop a visit by a Nobel Laureate, and which was being made at the invitation of South Africa's three Nobel Winners (De Klerk, Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu), is something that only they are able to justify.

The visa had been declined, because the Dalai Lama's presence "would not be in the best interests of South Africa at this time", according to government spokesman Thabo Masebe.

Hard to see what they are denying from the film, the violence, or the fact that someone filmed it.

Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama's representative, said the footage showed "police beating protesters. The footage clearly shows the beating of Tibetan captives even after they are handcuffed and tied, a violation of international norms" said the representative.

The government-in-exile also said the footage featured a Tibetan called Tendar, who died after being beaten by the Chinese security forces.

As mentioned in earlier blogs we are keeping a beady eye on the Gadfather (aka Colonel Muammar Gaddafi) in his role as "King of Kings", African Union chairman and all round international world and universally acclaimed leader.

Reports suggest that someone is heading for concrete shoes (or at least a cellar in Tripoli) as the Gadfather has fallen out with the AU's Peace and Security Council ...... we await the explosion.

Addendum: Hardly had I posted this when stories came out that the Gadfather stormed out of the Arab League summit in Qatar yesterday after denouncing the Saudi King and declaring himself "the dean of Arab rulers". He took the microphone and criticised King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, saying "You are always lying and you're facing the grave and you were made by Britain and protected by the United States".When the Qatari emir tried to calm him, Col Gaddafi, the Africa Union chairman, insisted he be allowed to speak, saying: "I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the King of Kings of Africa and the Imam (teacher) of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level."

The story has correlations with the Bibles 'Garden of Eden' tale which is fair enough, as the site archaeologist Klaus Schmidt has made the connection. "In the Book of Genesis, it is indicated that Eden is west of Assyria. Sure enough, this is where Gobekli is sited. Likewise, biblical Eden is by four rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates. And Gobekli lies between both of these. In ancient Assyrian texts, there is mention of a 'Beth Eden' - a house of Eden. This minor kingdom was 50 miles from Gobekli Tepe".

Another book in the Old Testament talks of 'the children of Eden which were in Thelasar', a town in northern Syria, near Gobekli. The very word 'Eden' comes from the Sumerian for 'plain'; Gobekli lies on the plains of Harran. It was built around 10,000 BC. By comparison, Stonehenge was built in 3,000 BC and the pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC.

The story highlights the fact that carbon-dating indicates that the temple complex is at least 12,000 years old, and maybe even as old as 13,000 years old. This takes it into the Neolithic period and well before the date the intelligent designer (aka God) is supposed to have created the Earth on (6,000 BC).

The carvings (seen here with Klaus Schmidt) are highly sophisticated, and the scale is somewhat reminiscent of the Malta temples (below) although much earlier.

On a side note ... I have noticed before that a lot of US blogger's quote from UK newspapers, and if any American can tell me if there is a particular reason for this - maybe US newspapers don't cover these kinds of stories? I would appreciate it.

What Defines A Nation? In the past the answer to this question was easy ..... common ethnicity, language, and shared common values would have been the answer. Germans, English, Zulu or Chinese, the answer would have been the same.

Now however, its 'racist' to mention race, or ethnicity. Multiculturalism, with its notion of 'equal cultural values' has put paid to 'common values', and the last leg, 'language' has taken a hammering with the latest revelation that English is not the first language for one in seven primary pupils in the UK, and in some parts of the UK its as high as 30% of the children.

Oddly a champion of English first was a Nottingham Postmaster, who said he will refuse to serve people in his post office if they cannot speak English, because how could he serve people if he did not understand what they were asking for?

Mr Deva Kumarasiri, who moved to England from Sri Lanka 18 years ago, runs the Sneinton Boulevard Post Office. He said "I was born and raised in a different country, my language was different, my religion was different. But when I came to England I obeyed the British way of life, I got into the British way of life. That is what I ask everyone else to do - respect the country where you are working and living."

In kicked the PC brigade when Post Office Counters Ltd said its "branches were open to all customers" and "steps would be taken" to ensure this at the Sneinton store, and this was followed by Afzal Sadif from the Nottingham Racial Equality Council who said Mr Kumarasiri's stance was "unacceptable. This is a public service, the Post Office is there for everybody and we seriously have to look at the stereotypical view he's coming across with. In the long run, I believe, if we're living in Britain, over the course of the years, you have to speak English to get by but you can't force it upon people."

A couple of days later it was announced that Mr Kumarasirii has left his job after he said that local Muslims (gosh what a surprise), had organised a petition against him. "I was forced out by a small minority of people who don't want to integrate into society" he said

So there we are then, the UK is now just a collection of fragmented and mutually incomprehensible racial groups, who share no common values. Oddly if I went to China or Zululand, there would still be the three pillars defining these nations, only in the PC riven West is it 'illegal' to even define your country by language.

There was a recent report that religious believers, were the most insistent that they be kept alive as long as possible, by opting for the most intensive life-prolonging care.

This despite much evidence that these kinds of last minute treatment, including resuscitation, may make the period before death far more uncomfortable. Whereas atheists were apparently more accepting that their time was up, and mainly wanted a dignified death as human beings.

The story entitled "Pious fight death the hardest" says it is unclear why those who pray prefer more aggressive end-of-life care .... however I suspect that the reality is that right at the end 'doubts' creep in, and there is a desperate last minute struggle to stay here ... I guess only the religious can explain this.

You would think that those who believed in the 'Paradise' to come would be keener to get there and not deny their creators (or Intelligent Designer's) will.

However its the atheists who consider it inhumane to use 'religion' to deny dying people both dignity and as pain free a death as possible .... but some people see no irony.

A nice story out of Tibet for a change, where a Tibetan monk has prayed in a temple so many times, that he has left a permanent statement of his devotion, in the form of his footprints imprinted on its wooden floor.

Monk Hua Chi once prayed up to 3,000 times a day on the same spot, to ensure his soul makes a smooth transition in the afterlife, and the total number of occasions on which he has stood on exactly the same spot is impossible to estimate.

But always with the blasé assumption that I personally wouldn't be around when it happened, and would be safely tucked up in my grave when it arrived. This was because all the best assumptions were that 2050 AD was the time humanities number would be up.

So imagine our dismay in this tower of isolation, when a news story this week, predicted that the end of the world had been brought forward to 2030 AD! Fortunately further reading of the story suggests that 2030 AD are likely to be the foothills of the mountain of problems that are to arrive two decades later.

However, its probably time to start stockpiling the baked beans folks, as the ever growing world population, will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030 AD according to Prof John Beddington UK government chief scientist.

He reckons that Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 AD and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion and climate change will make matters unpredictably worse. Even the United Nations Environment Programme predicts widespread water shortages across Africa, Europe and Asia by 2025 AD.

But its my contention that this will be nothing to the state the world will be in by 2050 AD, so I can still lie in my nice box ..... Phew!

Last week two robbers aged 40 and 31 were robbed by two other crooks (aged 22 and 27) as they escaped with loot from a jewellery store they had just held up. All four were captured by police after they exchanged shots and chased each other in cars ..... the loot had somehow disappeared and has not been accounted for.

Police are looking for another couple of unknown suspects, who may have 'stolen' the loot in the chaos.

Saturday, 14 March 2009

The Sideshow and the Carnie are often thought of as American in origin, mainly because of all the films we have all seen depicting the fairs and circuses, however as this very interesting Audio Slideshow explains, its actually a British innovation.

Unfortunately the pictures are all copyrighted, so I won't post any, but they are worth a look...... they were like this when I was a kid in the 50's and early 60's.

However I have found a few pictures to enliven the page.... Many of the Silent era comedians came from Circus, Music Hall (Vaudeville), Sidehow backgrounds in the UK ....... as Mr Chaplin (the Fred Karno troupe) often showed in many of his films.

During the 1940's and 1950's the fairgrounds were and circuses were big business in the US and travelled in some style.

Friday, 13 March 2009

Political Correctness is a dangerous creed for democracies to practise, as these pages have noted in the past. As part of an occasional series called "The faces of Modern Britain" I am documenting the general decline and breakup of 'national unity' in the UK as the true cost of following this creed in areas such as 'Immigration, Law and Order, and general accepted standards' are slowly being revealed.

Last time it was the face of the modern criminal gang, this week is my attention was drawn by the spectacle of British troops being abused in the street by Muslim "Anti War demonstrators", while the Non Muslim crowd were trying to support them.

The local press "Luton protest 'an insult to our soldiers", and national press, took a strong view on both the protesters, and the nature of their abuse, as did some politicians such as Dr Liam Fox (Conservative) who said: "This is offensive, appalling and disgraceful. It is only because of the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces that these people live in a free society where they are able to make their sordid protests."

However the fact remains that the only people arrested by the police, were two Non Muslims, for arguing / abusing with the protesters ... where were the arrests for those protesters 'inciting racial and religious hatred'?

After all the placards said such things (and the video clips and pictures confirm it) as "Anglian Soldiers: Butchers of Basra" and "Anglian Soldiers: cowards, killers, extremists". One also read: "British Government Terrorist Government." ... Ah well that law only applies if you insult Islam (apparently)..... much the same happened in the Danish Cartoon row, where only non Muslim counter protesters were arrested.

Of course to the PC ridden BBC, these were just "Two held during parade protests" or "Anti-war protest at parade" ... the words 'Muslim' were mostly exercised from the reports. But as we at this blog have noted before, the BBC is not reporting the facts when it talks of Muslims, rather it follows a particular 'editorial line', which is very much the same as the labour parties denial that, Muslim immigration is turning into a dangerous piece of social engineering (the long term results of which are far from certain).

Denying "Inconvenient Truths" always backfires in the long run, and the BBC and Government are causing much resentment, by pretending that Islam is not becoming an increasing problem in the UK.

Such luminaries of the criminal world as the Mexican 'giant' Joaquin Guzman (estimated fortune of $1bn (£722m) or Columbia's late but still great Pablo Escobar (personal wealth of close to $25 billion when he was killed) have appeared in its lists in recent years, and one can't help wondering if Japans Yakuza, or the Russian, Georgian, American or Italian Mafia's don't feel the need to compete?

Whilst this listing may be 'honest', is pandering to Mexican and Colombian 'drug' criminals merely one step from outright public acknowledgement and acceptance?

Sunday, 8 March 2009

That icon of the girls playbox turned fifty (again) .... no not again, really 'Fifty', the big 'FiveO', yes 50! This funny story has shown that if she was scaled up she would in fact be seven foot six inches tall, with a twenty eight inch waist and forty inch hips...... thats some kinda woman!

Of course there have been other big women ........ Allison Hayes was Fifty Foot tall (and subject of much prurient interest from this blogger when he was a teenage lad) ..... anyway here she is

South Africa like its 'revolutionary' comrade Zimbabwe, has a policy of 'land redistribution' (from white owners to black owners), which although nowhere near as violent as Zimbabwe's has proved just as pointless. Following apartheid, the ANC government had set a target of handing 30% of all agricultural land back to the black majority, by 2014.

Well guess what? After they handed over around 95% of the targeted land, the vast majority has simply gone out of production, and has lain idle for years. Yes the whole thing has resulted in less food being produced, and white farmers are still being attacked by "Activists".

Now the South African government has been forced to act by declaring it will seize back any idle land with the Agriculture Minister, Lulu Xingwanat, stating "I have... instructed my directors general to, with immediate effect, implement the principle of use it or lose it. Therefore, those who do not use the land must immediately be removed and the land must be given to emerging farmers and co-operatives."

What a condemnation of the political nature of land grabs .... in Zimbabwe its been confirmed as 'racist' by the regional courts, and has resulted in a complete collapse of all farming, so that the country is now a food aid recipient. Now that SA has acknowledged the failure of its scheme, maybe the political pressure to steal from whites will cease ..... or maybe not.